/* Copyright 2009 - 2010 The Stajistics Project
 *
 * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
 * You may obtain a copy of the License at
 *
 *    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 *
 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 * limitations under the License.
 */
package org.stajistics.configuration;

import java.io.Serializable;

/**
 * A factory for creating {@link StatsConfigBuilder}s.
 *
 * @author The Stajistics Project
 */
public interface StatsConfigBuilderFactory extends Serializable {

    /**
     * Create a new {@link StatsConfigBuilder} which can assemble various configurations.
     *
     * @return A {@link org.stajistics.StatsKeyBuilder} which can be used to specify configuration, never <tt>null</tt>.
     */
    StatsConfigBuilder createConfigBuilder();

    /**
     * Create a new {@link StatsConfigBuilder} which can assemble various configurations. The
     * builder is initialized from the given configuration <tt>template</tt>.
     *
     * @param template The configuration with which to initialize the builder.
     * @return A {@link org.stajistics.StatsKeyBuilder} which can be used to specify configuration, never <tt>null</tt>.
     */
    StatsConfigBuilder createConfigBuilder(StatsConfig template);

}
